In a Daughter's Eyes

Yesterday was Lizzy's Birthday. I got the 2:15p.m. Train out of Hoboken so I could get home by 3p.m. In order to buy what I needed and make Lizzy a cake, unfortunately, as usual NJ Transit had different plans for my time and the train broke down 2 mins. From my station. I arrived at the station at a little after 4:00p.m.. Lizzy's new “thing” is WWE wrestling. I have been known to make spectacular cakes, but with three hours to go and still having to buy supplies, I knew I would have to improvise. My thought was to create a fondant base over a square cake. Use pretzel rods and strawberry shoestring licorice for the ropes and buy some wrestling figures. In the center I would put a WWE logo. To complete the cake.

With a twenty minute drive home and the kids supposedly arriving at 7:00p.m. I pulled into Rite Aid to see what I could find to fit the bill. The only WWE figures they had were huge so the smaller fireman and policeman figures would have to do. Next for the ropes, Rite Aid always has the red shoestring licorice. Not today, looks like I'd have to pull apart sour band candies. OK, one more item on my list, they have to have pretzel rods. Of course not, why break the pattern?   I remembered I bought some safety candles a while back, they would have to do. O.K. So now I figure I better get home and start baking the cake. I get to the register and see WWE wrestling cards. Awesome! If I can't use them on the cake, I'll give them to Lizzy I am so ill prepared to decorate this cake, but my kids know I always make cakes for their birthdays, so I can't let her down.

I got home and pulled the Aldi's confetti cake mix, mixer square cake pan and everything else I needed out and put it on the counter. I whipped together the batter and 30mins. Later, a small square cake and tray of cupcakes came out of the oven. I let them cool and used the square pan as a base for the cake. I actually found blue icing in the cupboard, so the mat was blue. The candles and candy ropes were a pain in the butt. I put the fighters in the center. Something was missing. The cards, I put the cards around the cake pan to cover it and give it a WWE feel.

In just a couple of hours, I baked a cake, cooled it and decorated it. It fell so far short of what I had originally envisioned and could have done had I had the time.  The kids didn't make it over until after eight o'clock, but the look on Elizabeth's face, when she saw the cake, told me that in her eyes, it was better than anything I could have envisioned. Her mouth dropped open and she said, “ A Wrestling Cake. Wow!”. My utter embarrassment at the decorating job faded away as I realized I had created a hero moment.  She hugged me and thanked me. She really had wanted the wrestling cake. The cake was delicious and we quickly enjoyed a piece. I gave her the new camera and her birthday was complete.

Happy Birthday Lizzy.